Now available for testing: The LFO Plugin

Saga Musix · June 29, 2017, 11:53:15

OpenMPT has a new built-in plugin: It's called LFO and that's exactly what it is. This is the answer to all those plugins whose LFOs lack certain waveforms, cannot control certain parameters or don't have an LFO to begin with. The LFO plugin sends its automation data through the plugin chain that you should already be familiar with, i.e. you simply select the target of the LFO plugin through the "output to" dropdown in the General Tab or in the plugin GUI.

You can control plugin parameters as well as MIDI CCs on any channel. The phase of the plugin can be set manually by automating parameter 7 8, if required. This way, you can reset the phase whenever you like, but not only to the beggining of the phase but to any position you like.

The plugin is not finalized yet, so parameter ranges and other things might still change before the release of OpenMPT 1.27. I have hardly used the plugin myself yet so I'm looking for ideas what can be improved to make it more useful or easier to use.
Grab a recent test build from https://builds.openmpt.org/builds/ and start testing. Report your findings here!

LPChip · June 29, 2017, 15:50:14

Can it respond to notes played in the pattern area and sync it, so the LFO resets upon receiving a note? Or is this just one LFO that constantly plays in the background making it possible to automatically do stuff regardless of what is actually happening in the song?

If the above is possible it could be used to create synthersizer effects, such as changing filter settings on each note start with the saw.

Saga Musix · June 29, 2017, 19:35:16

Just read the first post again:

QuoteThe phase of the plugin can be set manually by automating parameter 7, if required. This way, you can reset the phase whenever you like, but not only to the beggining of the phase but to any position you like.

I decided not to implement it twice because using PC events offers more possibilities, such as resetting the phase to halfway instead of just the beginning of the phase. If too many people want to be able to reset the phase through regular pattern notes, I can reconsider this though.

LPChip · June 29, 2017, 20:01:08

I see... Programming a parameter change for every note is definitely going to prevent me from using it to add a function to a VSTi that doesn't support it, because it would be as much work to program the actual change, but nevertheless I can still see some things where this is very useful.

Is it possible to use one LFO to control another LFO?

By using a fast sine and a slow sine, you could create very cool and unique effects that otherwise would not be possible, and that is just one of the many examples I can think of. using noise as a randomizer for the speed of an LFO can be fun too.

Saga Musix · June 29, 2017, 20:02:51

Quote from: LPChip on June 29, 2017, 20:01:08
Is it possible to use one LFO to control another LFO?

You could simply try it.

But yes, you can set any plugin as the output plugin of the LFO, including another instance of the LFO plugin. The only requirement, as with all plugin chains in OpenMPT, is that the plugins must be in ascending order, i.e. an LFO in FX02 cannot automate FX01.

Saga Musix · June 29, 2017, 20:50:35

Starting from r8373, the LFO phase is now also reset when a MIDI note is received. To actually make this useful, r8374 also passes all the MIDI data received by the plugin to the output plugin, so now you can assign the LFO plugin to a mod instrument, route its output to a VSTi and everything should work as expected.

LPChip · June 30, 2017, 08:02:14

Oh, very interesting!!

Thanks!

I'm currently not in the luxury to play with new things, but I will definitely start playing with this once my current project is finished.

ndelay33 · July 04, 2017, 20:23:07

wonderfull news, Saga Musix, this is very cool for me!!!!

would be great to include macros sliders that could control different plugins different parametrs with one slider. (like in ableton macros knobs https://music.tutsplus.com/tutorials/ableton-live-racks-creating-one-knob-macro-controls--audio-5681) And with ability to record automations of macros it will get ultra powerfull. the LFO tool and macros will get modplug on a next level almost modular patching! very cool!

thank you

Saga Musix · July 04, 2017, 20:26:27

Do you mean that you want to control several plugins with a single LFO?

ndelay33 · July 04, 2017, 21:54:09

control several plugins with one automation(a macro knob)
each assigned plugin parametre has its minimum and maximum. <--- here it gets very usefull !
so when you record automation for this macro knob it actually manipulates different vst's and its parametrs!
this technology is super nice in ableton. looks like this:

as far as it's just a knob that controls other knobs would also be cool if we could put a fancy new LFO on it

Saga Musix · July 04, 2017, 21:56:15

OpenMPT can currently only output data from a plugin to one other plugin. As long as this limitation exists, the LFO Plugin will have the same limitation as any other plugin. However, once this limitation is gone, I think this would be doable by chaining one "master LFO" with several slave LFOs to control the other plugins.

ndelay33 · July 04, 2017, 22:32:09

interesting. thanks for everything!!!

ndelay33 · July 07, 2017, 15:27:05

LFO plugin works very fine. no errors noticed as i used 5-6 on a track.

so i had this dream about an "envelope follower" internal plugin. You can put it on a chanell -> it will listen to a sound from this chanell - > and control plugin parameters as well as MIDI CCs (based on envelop ADR values)

the andvantages of this thing are super massive.
this how it looks made in max for live

Saga Musix · July 07, 2017, 15:29:33

Quote from: ndelay33 on July 07, 2017, 15:27:05
LFO plugin works very fine. no errors noticed as i used 5-6 on a track.

Great to hear. Do you think the controls are appropriate, particularly the frequency control? Did you use tempo-synced mode?

ndelay33 · July 07, 2017, 15:43:30

what i love about the freq control is that it can be veeery slow! almost not moving!
havent used temp sync, my bad, i will try.

and another idea i had a few years ago, maybe its the right time to share

in the instruments tab, we have envelopes for filter, pitch, vol, pan. how about making additional envelope for a plugin ? so we can make an instruments that basicly would be a plugin controllers. and everytime the note is pressed on this instrument, the automation goes the way you have drawn it.